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Three area teens could be tried as adults for allegedly attacking two men and stealing money from them as part of the nationwide "Knockout Game" trend.

A 17-year-old boy is charged with two counts of robbery. A 15 and 14 year olds are charged with one count each of robbery for allegedly assaulting two men one homeless in separate attacks. In each case, the teens allegedly sucker-punched the men in the back of the head unsuspectingly, trying to knock them out.

The attack on Ronald Baird, a known metal scrapper, happened March 7 near East Fifth Street and the teens captured it on cell phone video. A teacher at the Stivers School of the Arts, where the teens are students, saw the video and made a copy, and turned it over to Dayton police. That helped detectives track down the suspects, and connect them to another violent attack on Phillip Drozd, who is homeless, on April 1 on East Third Street. In each case, the victims were struck repeatedly, and robbed of their cash $10 total between the two men, according to police.

During a press conference Friday, Prosecutor Mat Heck said he will ask the juvenile court system to transfer the cases over to the adult courts due the the severity of the attacks.

"The message should be loud and clear that we are not going to tolerate this type of barbaric conduct and acts in our community," Heck said. "If you do this and you are a juvenile, we are going to ask the court to transfer you and try you as an adult in the adult court system."

These are the first two recorded cases in Dayton, but the Internet is full of videos of teens making similar attacks as part of the "Knockout Game," which has become a nationwide trend. A Minnesota teen was sentenced in February to 10 years in prison for killing a man he punched as part of the game. Connecticut legislators are considering a bill that would bump an assault up to the second-degree felony if the attack is found to be part of the game and the intent was "to cause serious physical injury to another person by rendering such other person unconscious."

As juveniles, the Dayton teens could serve a minimum of six months and be held up to the age of 21 in a detention center if convicted. As adults, they would face two to eight years in prison. A juvenile court judge will hold a probable cause hearing and the teens will have to undergo a psychological assessment before it will be determined if they can be tried as adults. That process will take six to eight weeks, Heck said.

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Mat Heck: Try 'Knockout Game' teens as adults